Road freight activity close to 2009 levels

All key road freight indicators increased substantially in 2016. The number of goods vehicles was up 13.3%. Laden journeys increased by 17.6%. Tonnes carried increased by 20.0%, vehicle kilometres by 19.7% and tonne-kilometres by 17.5%. See table A.

In 2016, there were 98,656 goods vehicles (over 2 tonnes unladen weight) on the roads. This was an increase of 13.3% on 2015. The number of larger vehicles over 10 tonnes unladen weight grew by 18.1% in the year. See table D.

Vehicles over 10 tonnes unladen weight accounted for one fifth of the overall fleet in 2016, but carried the lion’s share of road freight activity. They accounted for 54.3% of all laden journeys, 86.7% of tonnes carried and 88.4% of tonne-kilometres.

In 2016, a total of 141.7 million tonnes of goods was transported by road. This was the highest level recorded since 2009 when 148.3 million tonnes were carried, but was still well below the peak figure of 299.3 million tonnes carried in 2007. See table A.

The distance covered by road freight transport was 1,558 million kilometres in 2016.

Activity measured as weight by distance, or tonne-kilometres, reached 11,564 million tonne-kilometres in 2016. Again, this was close to the 2009 level of 12,071 million tonne-kilometres but considerably below the 2007 peak in the series.

The type of work showing the greatest annual increase in tonnes carried in 2016 was Delivery of goods to road works or building sites. This category includes many building materials such as sand, gravel, cement and concrete. See table K.

Main use of vehicle

Vehicles used for hire or reward performed 76.8% of total road freight activity, amounting to 8.9 billion tonne-km in 2016. These vehicles carried 92.6 million tonnes and travelled a total of 928 million vehicle kilometres during 2016. Vehicles used for own account purposes accounted for 2.7 billion tonne-km (23.2%) of total activity, and travelled a total of 630 million vehicle kilometres, carrying 49.1 million tonnes of goods. See tables B and 1.

Business of owner

Vehicles owned by transport companies carried 87.0 million tonnes of goods in 2016 compared with 54.7 million tonnes by all other goods vehicles. Vehicles in the transport sector accounted for 5,163 (42.7%) of all laden journeys. See tables C and 3.

In 2016, seven in ten vehicles (69.0%) of the total fleet (98,656 vehicles) had an unladen weight of between 2 to 5 tonnes. However, these vehicles were responsible for 3.7% of the total weight of goods transported and 2.7% of total activity in terms of tonne-km. Vehicles with an unladen weight of greater than 10 tonnes accounted for one-fifth (20.1%) of the vehicle fleet but were responsible for 88.4% of total activity in terms of tonne-km. These vehicles carried 122.9 million tonnes of goods, representing 86.7% of the total tonnes carried, and they made over half (54.3%) of all laden journeys. See tables D and 3.

Age of fleet

Vehicles manufactured in the four years to 2016 (2013-2016) accounted for a quarter of the goods vehicle fleet (24.0%) in 2016. These vehicles carried a quarter (24.5%) of all goods and accounted for 35.1% of overall road freight activity (tonne-km). See tables E, 10 and 11.

Length of haul

In 2016, the bulk of road freight activity as measured by tonne-km (84.9%) was carried out over distances greater than 50 kilometres. A total of 64.8 million tonnes of goods (45.7%) was transported over these longer distances, covering 879 million vehicle kilometres. For distances of 50 km and less, the total amount of goods carried was greater (76.9 million tonnes) but they represented just 15.1% of the overall activity, as measured by tonne-km. See tables F and 5.

Commodity transported

Of the total weight of goods carried, the commodity group quarry products, metal ores and peat accounted for the largest share (24.7% or 35.0 million tonnes) in 2016. This was followed by foodstuffs at 16.9% (23.9 million tonnes). However, the contribution of quarry products, metal ores and peat to overall road freight activity, in terms of tonne-km, was less than 10%, reflecting heavier loads carried over shorter distances. By contrast, foodstuffs accounted for a quarter of total tonne-km. See tables G, 8 and 9.

Main type of work carried out

Goods vehicles involved in the delivery of goods to road works or building sites carried 45.5 million tonnes of goods in 2016, representing almost one third of all goods carried. This was followed by those involved in delivery of materials and fuels to factories (17.8 million) and delivery of goods to retail outlets (16.0 million). See figure 2 and table 6.

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Type of work

Tonnes carried (million)

Import/export work

11.263

Carriage of livestock

1.302

Carriage of other farm produce from farms

6.648

Carriage of fertilisers, feeding stuffs, etc. to farms

6.415

Delivery of goods to road works or building sites

45.52

Delivery of goods to retail outlets

16.048

Delivery of goods to wholesalers

11.897

Delivery of materials and fuels to factories

17.844

Delivery of goods to households

4.015

Other work

20.717

In terms of overall road freight activity in 2016 vehicles involved in import/export work (2.4 billion tonne-km) were the largest contributors, representing 20.6% of total tonne-km. This was followed by those involved in delivery of goods to retail outlets (15.5%). See figure 3 and table 6.

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Type of work

% tonne-km

Import/export work

20.6

Carriage of livestock

1.1

Carriage of other farm produce from farms

3.3

Carriage of fertilisers, feeding stuffs, etc. to farms

3.9

Delivery of goods to road works or building sites

12.7

Delivery of goods to retail outlets

15.5

Delivery of goods to wholesalers

12.0

Delivery of materials and fuels to factories

13.7

Delivery of goods to households

2.2

Other work

14.9

National and international road freight activity

The vast majority of the 141.7 million tonnes of goods transported by Irish goods vehicles in 2016 was carried out within the Republic of Ireland. National transport accounted for 94.4% (133.8 million tonnes) of the total, with international transport representing the remainder. In terms of overall road freight activity, as expressed by tonne-km, the difference was not quite as significant, with 79.7% of activity carried out within the national territory. See tables H, 2, 7 & 8.

In 2016, the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) was the major source/destination region for the transport of goods to and from the Republic of Ireland. In total, 5.6 million tonnes of goods were transported, with a total of 2.1 million tonnes received and 3.5 million tonnes dispatched from the Republic of Ireland to the UK. See tables J and 15.

Comparison with 2015 Results

The weight of goods carried by road on Irish registered vehicles increased by a fifth (20.0%) to 141.7 million tonnes between 2015 and 2016. The weight of goods carried by vehicles owned by transport companies increased by 29.9% to 87.0 million tonnes, while the share of goods transported by vehicles owned by transport companies increased from 56.7% in 2015 to 61.4% in 2016. Overall road freight activity, as measured by tonne-km, rose by 17.5% to 11.6 billion. The largest increase in the weight of goods (39.8%) occurred for vehicles involved in the delivery of goods to road works or building sites, while the largest decrease occurred for vehicles involved in the carriage of livestock where the weight of goods carried fell by 5.3% in 2016. See table K.

Background Notes

Survey Methodology

Introduction

This report contains the results of the "National Survey of Transport of Goods by Road" which is conducted on a weekly basis throughout the year.

Legal framework

This is a statutory survey conducted under the Statistics (Road Freight) Order, 2016 (SI No 146 of 2016) to meet Ireland’s EU requirements under Council Regulation (EC) 70/2012 on statistical returns in respect of the carriage of goods by road.

Scope of the survey

This report covers the survey period beginning the first week of January 2016 and ending the last week of December 2016. Irish registered vehicles that come within the scope of the survey must meet the following criteria:

belong to the motor taxation class ‘Goods Vehicles’

have a valid motor tax disk during the relevant survey week. However, in practice, as the survey sample was selected several weeks before the survey week, vehicles where the motor tax had expired no more than three months previously were also included in the scope.

have an unladen weight of two tonnes and over

have a vehicular body type appropriate for carrying freight (see appendix B for a list of vehicular types that have been excluded).

No other vehicles are covered. In particular this means that vehicles in other motor taxation classes such as agricultural tractors, general haulage tractors, dumpers and exempt vehicles (i.e. vehicles exempt from liability to pay road tax which includes state owned, diplomatic, fire services or disabled drivers) are not included in the survey.

All activity of goods vehicles within the scope of the survey engaged in the carriage of goods on the public road, either on own account or for hire or reward, are covered. Excluded, therefore, is activity such as site work off the public road or work of a mainly service nature (e.g. carriage of personnel to or from places of work).

Sampling frame

The sampling frame for the Survey comes from the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s database on vehicles taxed as goods vehicles.

The sampling frame/register is updated every eight weeks during the year with information from the Department regarding vehicles:

being registered for the first time

having their motor taxation class changed

being formally scrapped

having their registered owner changed.

The information required of each vehicle on the register for survey purposes is as follows:

a) year of manufacture of the vehicleb) date of first registration of the vehiclec) an indication as to whether the vehicle has been taxed for the carriage of goods on own account or for hire or rewardd) the unladen weight of the vehiclee) name and address of the person on whose name the vehicle was most recently taxed (referred to as the owner of the vehicle in the following paragraphs).

Periodicity

The results are published on an annual basis.

Sample design

Information is collected in respect of one week’s transport activity for a random sample of goods vehicles. Every week a sample of vehicles is selected from the register. A survey questionnaire is then issued to the registered owners of these vehicles by post, seeking information on the vehicle and an account of the vehicle’s activity during that week. For the purposes of sample selection, vehicles are divided into 20 strata. These strata were created on the basis of four criteria:

the unladen weight of the vehicle

year of first registration of the vehicle

whether the vehicle had been taxed for the carriage of goods on own account or for hire or reward

Response rates

Out of a total of 23,506 vehicles surveyed, a satisfactory return was received in respect of 11,877 vehicles, representing an overall response rate of 51%. However, this rate varied across the differing survey strata. Response rates broken down by the unladen weight and the year of manufacture of vehicle are presented in Table M.

Changes to commodity classification

In 2007, the standard goods classification for transport statistics, NST/R, was revised by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). A new version, NST 2007, was introduced to be consistent with the revised NACE (Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community). This new goods classification came into force in 2008.

Accordingly, the goods commodities collected in the “National Survey of Transport of Goods by Road” have been revised in line with this new goods classification, effective from 2009 onwards. Unfortunately, this revision means that the results by commodity in this publication for 2016 are not directly comparable with 2008 or previous years.

Reliability of results

Estimation of survey results from data relating to only one week’s activity for a sample of vehicles introduces a statistical variability which would not be present if a full year’s data had been collected for every vehicle. This means that the survey results cannot be taken as accurate to the full degree shown in this report.

This variability is expressed by means of the coefficient of variation. This coefficient gives the relative size of the “sampling error” (variability) present in an estimate compared with the estimate itself. In general, estimates can be said to have a relative precision of twice their coefficient of variation. The estimated coefficients of variation for the overall tonnes carried, tonne-kilometres and vehicle kilometres estimates are shown in Table N below.

In general, the more detailed the classification provided the greater the coefficient of variation of the estimates. In the derivation of the results the assumption is made that non-respondents have similar characteristics and activity levels to those of respondents in the same stratification cell. This assumption, which is a standard one in surveys such as this, may result in some degree of bias being introduced into the results. Moreover, although every effort is made to ensure that the returns received are correct in all respects it is inevitable that some minor non-sampling errors remain undetected.

Rounding: Due to the fact that individual figures have been rounded independently there may be slight discrepancies between the sum of the constituent items and the totals shown.

Definitions used

Type of journey

End-to-end journeys are those which have no intermediate collection or delivery points between their origin and destination.

Split delivery/collection journeys involve the depositing and/or collection of part of the load carried at one or more stopping points along the way. A common example of such a journey would be the delivery of beer to public houses and the collection of empties.

Tonnes carried

This is the weight of goods (including empties) carried inclusive of packaging etc. but excluding the weight of demountable containers (if any) in which the goods are carried.

For split delivery/collection journeys tonnes carried are taken as the weight of goods at the start of the journey plus the weight of any other goods collected during the journey.

Tonne-kilometres (tonne-km)

For end-to-end journeys this is the result of multiplying the weight of goods carried by the distance they were carried.

For split delivery/collection journeys more complex formulae were used. These involved multiplying the distance travelled with a load by an estimate of the average weight of load carried.

National transport

National transport is the carriage of goods by road by Irish registered goods vehicles between two places (a place of loading/embarkment and a place of unloading/disembarkment) both of which are located in the Republic of Ireland.

Appendix A

NUTS2 and NUTS3 regions

The regional classifications in this release are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. The NUTS3 regions correspond to the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993, which came into operation on 1 January 1994. The NUTS2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the NUTS3 regions. The composition of the regions is set out below.

Border: Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo.Midland: Laois, Longford, Offaly, and Westmeath.West: Galway City and County, Mayo and Roscommon.Dublin: Dublin City, Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal, and South Dublin.Mid-East: Kildare, Meath and Wicklow.Mid-West: Limerick City and County, Clare and North Tipperary.South-East: Waterford City and County, Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary and Wexford.South-West: Cork City and County and County of Kerry.

1 This annual population estimate is an average of four quarterly population estimates. Vehicles under two tonnes unladen weight or with motor tax expired for more than 3 months are not included in these estimates.